Some background Information on
PIGFACE POINT SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATIONAL SITE.
Ted Trainer.
Since the 1970s I have taught courses on global problems at University of NSW, focusing on environmental, Third World, resource scarcity, peace and conflict, economic injustice and quality of life issues. The main objective of these courses has been to get students to grasp the magnitude of the problems, their origins in fundamental flaws in our society, especially over-consumption, and the argument that the problems cannot be solved without quite radical change to what is being called “The Simpler Way”.
I have published some two hundred articles and have given about three hundred invited public lectures and have published about ten books on these themes, including Abandon Affluence, Zed, 1985, The Conserver Society, Zed, 1995, Developed to Death, Green Books, 1998, and Saving the Environment; What It Will Take, 1998. Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain Consumer Society is to be published by Springer in 2007. This might indicate the depth that has been applied to the educational project at Pigface Point.
Development of Pigface Point.
My family has lived on the site since 1943, without connection to mains for water or energy and without waste collection or sewer services. We are relatively self-sufficient, using solar energy, windmills, an open fire and rain water tanks.
We began hosting visits in the mid-1980s and have been gradually elaborating the site as a sustainabillty education venue since then. This has been a very slow and difficult process as the site is problematic, having poor water sources and soils and a major bushfire threat. We were burnt out completely in the early years, and in a fire some 6 years ago we lost all out buildings and educational displays etc.. Because we wish to minimise impact on the bushland we keep our firebreaks as small as possible, thus incurring greater risk.
We have worked in various campaigns to preserve the 100 ha of bushland North of Sirius Rd, and believe that its present E3 protected status is largely due to our efforts in the early years, when we refused several offers from developers.
Our main educational activity has been hosting a two hour guided tour, but we have also run whole day events. Several thousand people, mostly students, have visited over the years. The site is known internationally and has been the subject of various articles and documentaries, included for instance in Four Corners and Burke’s Backyard.
It is a non-profit venture. We do not charge and we meet all development and tour expenses,
The site has also been available for community groups and individuals to enjoy, including bushwalkers and bird watchers. It is a remarkably varied and precious area of bushland and river side, all except out homestead area in wilderness condition, including the Heritage-listed wetland, and we have always been keen to make it as accessible as possible to anyone who wishes to enjoy it.
Some themes, items, displays etc. observable.
Displays and diagrams showing global resource scarcities and distributions, especially re C02 emissions and petroleum.
Low dollar and resource living costs per capita.
Self-sufficiency, do-it-yourself, home-made things, living simply.
Various alternative technologies, including solar panels, windmills, garbage gas, water wheels (one 4.5 metres tall), water wheels driven by river tides, pelton wheel, teaspoon turbine, two windmills, one home-made on a 17 metre tower, 12 volt electrical circuits and machinery. (Soon to add a solar thermal technologies section, including Stirling engines, trough, dish and central receiver system working models, solar chimney model, distilling, light pipes, fresnel lenses, and stem power. Water recycling, e.g., via reedbeds.)
Significance of hand tools, e.g. pedal-powered grinder.
Earth building; animal sheds illustrating different techniques, mud brick making.
A very cheap house (built to council approval in 1989 for $8,000.)
Gardens, animals, poultry, sheep, goats, bee hives. (Fish tanks soon.)
Various arts and crafts, include sculpture, painting, model making, blacksmithing, wood turning, bush carpentry, pottery, stone work, candle making, paper making, leather work, rush and basket work. Home-made large ornamental garden pots and columns.
“Non-alienated” labour; collapse of the work/leisure distinction.
AS model of the sort of reconstructed neighbourhood workshop we should have on every suburban block.
Overlaps; e.g., how the garbage disposal problem can solve the fertiliser problem.
Environmental connections; ecologically appropriate ways. Environmental sensitivity items; e.g., walks along the scale of the planetary system, and the evolutionary time scale.
Some Permaculture themes, including organic gardening, overlapping functions, composting, zoning, stacking, zero-energy inputs, integration of animals, tree crops, forest-gardens, seed saving, propagation, water plants.
Recycling, using local waste material, scavenging, a recycling area.
The importance of sufficiency. Rough but adequate standards; things that are convenient and functional but not elegant. Cheap and simple things are often quite good enough.
Implications for Third World development; illustration of appropriate technologies, economies and systems for resource poor regions.
The crucial importance of local economic self-sufficiency.
Principles for the new economy required, especially localisation, alternative currencies and large non-monetised sectors (e.g., commons, cooperatives, free goods and gifting.)
Extensive landscaped leisure areas, showing how neighbourhoods could be made “leisure-rich”, stocked with active and passive sources of recreation, (e.g., flying fox, ropes, caves, castles…)
Above all, to show that the required simple and self-sufficient way of life could be highly interesting and rewarding. Many people mistakenly assume the “limits to growth” case means we must make sacrifices and reduce our “living standards” in order to solve global problems. They do not realise that The Simpler Way could provide a better quality of life than most people experience in affluent society.
The significance of the venture.
Many of our visitors have said that their exposure to the site has had a life changing impact on them. We see our special contribution in focusing attention on the usually unrecognised seriousness of global problems, the claim that they cannot be solved without far-reaching change in our society’s system and values, and the availability of workable and attractive alternative ways. (See some commentaries below.)
In our view most environmental education and most discussions of “sustainability” fail to reflect the seriousness of the global predicament, and deal only with superficial changes that cannot solve the urgent problems. My academic work makes me aware of much literature anticipating catastrophic collapse in Western society within decades . (See for instance the Dieoff site; http://dieoff.org/.) It is therefore extremely important that the very few agencies and sites like Pigface Point which are attempting to draw attention to the need for fundamental system change should be able to continue their development. Our ultimate goal is to provide a model educational project which others can establish at many locations around the world.
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The address for the website we have set up to provide critical global educators with material on the global situation and The Simper Way, is
thesimplerway.info/
The link for our 48 minute video on the site: